Endoscopic or video surgery is a relatively new medical procedure. It involves a surgeon making a small incision in a patient and inserting a lens and light source connected by cables to a video camera which, in turn, is connected to a monitor.
The endoscope, i.e., lens and light source elements are combined in a rod-like structure which is inserted in an area such as, for example, the abdomen or the chest. One or more other incisions are also made, through which functioning surgical instruments are inserted with their handles or equivalent operating mechanisms remaining outside the patient. The surgeon performs his work interiorally through the small incisions while watching the entire procedure on the video monitor.
The benefits from endoscopic surgery are numerous. Large scars are eliminated, the process, in many instances, is relatively bloodless and is much less traumatic to the patient than open surgery. The patient can leave the hospital in a far shorter period than after open surgery. This has economic benefits as well as emotional.
As indicated above, endoscopic surgery is performed with surgical instruments inserted through very small incisions. One problem is that the instruments themselves must be narrow enough to be able to be inserted into a patient without causing undue trauma. The surgeon may employ liners or mechanical orifices generally less than an inch in diameter which, themselves, are placed in the incisions.
Another problem encountered in surgery, endoscopic or open, is the necessity for operating on parts of the body which are moving as, for example, the heart or the lungs. This is made even more complicated by the fact that both of these organs are in the chest cavity and the thoracic surgeon, by necessity, must enter the cavity through incisions generally made between the ribs. Thus arises the dual objective of this invention of providing instruments which are narrow enough to enter between the ribs and which are capable of manipulating moving organs such as the heart or the lungs. It is to these objectives that the present invention is directed.